In today's connected world, it is extremely important to have continuous access to the Internet. The Internet and assistance that the Internet provides have become an integral necessity of daily lives. Thus, it is essential to be connected to the Internet even while travelling to have an uninterrupted access to the assistance that the Internet provides. Commercial vehicles provide Internet access by way of wireless networks to users in transit. The users book the commercial vehicles for commuting to and from workplaces daily and thus the Internet access is an important value added service provided by the commercial vehicles. With the advancement in the field of wireless networks, it has become possible for handheld devices and laptop computers, carried by the users, to connect to the Internet while the users are in transit. Examples of handheld devices include mobile and/or cellular phones, tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like. Examples of the wireless networks include Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth networks, ZigBee networks, and the like. Typically, the wireless networks are created by access points. The access points function as gateways to the Internet. Thus, the access points are mediators between the handheld devices and the Internet. The access points are configured to receive access requests from the handheld devices, authenticate the handheld devices, and provide access of the Internet to the handheld devices. Examples of the access points include routers, LAN controllers, Universal Serial Bus (USB) dongles, and the like. Alternatively, mobile phones and tablets may also function as the access points by creating the Wi-Fi hotspots that are accessed by the handheld devices. Examples of the commercial vehicles include a taxi, a cab, a bus, fleet vehicles, and the like.
Typically, the users while travelling on the commercial vehicles (for instance, the taxi or the cab) connect to the Internet via the access points available in the commercial vehicles. Each commercial vehicle includes at least one of a wireless router, the mobile phone, and USB dongles that function as the access point and create the Wi-Fi hotspots. Each Wi-Fi hotspot created in the commercial vehicle has a Service Set Identifier (SSID) and a password. The SSID and password are inputted by the user in the handheld device to connect with the Wi-Fi hotspot and access the Internet. Generally, the chauffer of the commercial vehicle is aware of the SSID and the password of the Wi-Fi hotspot. The chauffer communicates the SSID and the password of the Wi-Fi hotspot to the user. The SSID and the password are specific to the Wi-Fi hotspot of the commercial vehicle. Thus, each commercial vehicle with the Wi-Fi hotspot has a different SSID and password. As the user travels in different commercial vehicles, the user has to re-connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot with different SSIDs and enter the corresponding passwords each time. The re-connection to different Wi-Fi hotspot is a tedious and time-consuming process. Additionally, as the password for the Wi-Fi hotspot is known to the chauffer of the commercial vehicle and the user, there are security risks involved with the use of the Wi-Fi hotspot. For example, the chauffer may himself misuse the Wi-Fi hotspot or access user data stored in the handheld device of the user. The user data includes personal, professional, and financial information of the user. Furthermore, the use of Wi-Fi hotspots cannot be regulated, as the chauffer controls the Wi-Fi hotspot and there is no track of historical and current usage of the Wi-Fi hotspots.
To solve the aforementioned drawbacks, the Wi-Fi hotspot in the commercial vehicles is made accessible to each user with different password. When the user enters the commercial vehicle and connects with the Wi-Fi hotspot by way of the handheld device, a one-time password is generated by a backend server and sent to the handheld device. Thus, every time the user re-connects with the Wi-Fi hotspot, a new one-time password is generated by the backend server and transmitted to the handheld device. The access point authenticates the handheld device based on the one-time password and provides the access of the Internet to the handheld device. Thus, the chauffer and the user are not aware of the password of the Wi-Fi hotspot as the password changes for every session initiated by the user. However, there is a need to re-enter the passwords every time the user connects with the Wi-Fi hotspot. Also, the backend server is required to generate multiple passwords for same user every time the user connects with the Wi-Fi hotspot. Furthermore, the user needs to interact with a web-page that assists the user in generating the one-time password. The web-page may request the user to input his/her name, telephone number, email ID, and the like. The web-page may also display a non-skippable advertisement to the user before generating the one-time password. Thus, the user is required to interact with the web-page every time the user connects with the Wi-Fi hotspot which is extremely tedious and time consuming. Additionally, there are delays involved in receiving the one-time password by the handheld devices thereby hampering connectivity and accessibility to the Internet.
Thus, there is a need for a system that provides a seamless access to the wireless networks and effectively manages the wireless networks in shared resources environments.